The present disclosure relates generally to delivery systems for prosthetic medical devices for implantation within a human or animal body for repair of damaged vessels, ducts, or other physiological pathways, and particularly, to prosthesis delivery systems with a reduced length handle.
The use of delivery devices or introducers employing catheters are used for a variety of medical procedures, including procedures for establishing, re-establishing or maintaining passages, cavities or lumens in vessels, organs or ducts in human and veterinary patients, occlusion of such vessels, delivering medical treatments, and other interventions. For these procedures, an implantable prosthetic medical device is delivered by means of a catheter, often intraluminally. For example, a stent, stent-graft, vena cava filter or occlusion device may be delivered intraluminally from the femoral artery, via a transapical approach and/or using other acceptable delivery locations and methods for deployment of the prosthesis.
For procedures in which a prosthesis or other medical device is implanted into a patient, the prosthesis is normally held on a carrier catheter or cannula of the introducer in a compressed state and then released from the cannula so as to expand to its normal operating state. In many devices, the steps to carry out the implantation may occur, for example, first by retracting an outer sheath away from the loaded prosthesis to allow for its expansion, and then performing further steps, for example, to release one or both ends of the prosthesis, deploy an anchoring stent, or the like. Longer delivery systems are used for aortic treatment, especially those with additional peripheral vessel access sheaths. Longer devices require longer guidewires and other components, and may be more cumbersome and difficult to manipulate. Because there is an increasing complexity and variety of vascular anatomies targeted for treatment, there is a need for improved delivery systems and methods.